Contest: HoneyMaxx Giveaway plus 2016 Year-to-Date

With the end of April upon us, I thought I’d summarize my cycling year to date. I started this blog to write about my goal for 2016, which is to have (at least) 50 memorable rides in this, my 50th year. I’ve been careful not to define “memorable”, and I’ve purposely avoided the word “epic”, which is over used. To date, I’ve completed 14 of these rides, ranging in distance from about 6 km, to nearly 80 km.

For these memorable rides, I don’t have any specific criteria, but the general guidelines are:

A destination ride

A new route, or new roads (including adding lines to my Heatmap below)

A ride I haven’t done before

Good scenery and/or good company

A race or event

A new distance goal

I’m looking for company and suggestions for new “memorable” rides (see contest later in this blog).

Overall, I’ve ridden over 1000 km on over 30 rides. I also use the website veloviewer.com which uses Strava data and plays with the numbers (the totals below include one hike of 2-3 km).

I use Strava to keep track of my rides, and there are an number of other websites that make use of Strava data to play with the numbers and map rides in different ways. One such site is a multi-ride mapper: www.jonathanokeeffe.com/strava/map.php Using this webpage, here’s my map of rides so far in 2016. Warmer colours are routes I’ve ridden more frequently, and if you look closely, you should be able to pick out some of my “memorable” rides listed above (not all my rides have been included in my “50-in-50” rides).

2016 Cycling Heat Map

Since I’ve been using Strava since early 2012, I can generate a heat map for all rides since then (below). Again, you can see the warm colours centred around my main routes and some lines remoter areas near vacation spots or bike events (Centurion, Crank the Shield).

2012 – 2016 Cycling Heat Map

Strava also has some cool “projects”, one of which is called “Roster“. Roster will tell you your most-frequent riding partners for any given year or years, and it will tell you how many hours (or days) you’ve spent riding with everyone. In 2016, I’ve spent over five hours riding with Ana Maria B., Bob A., Thiago T., Tim K, Vince B. and Susan G. And since 2012, I’ve spent five DAYS riding with Krisztian T., and over two days riding with Bob A., Ana Maria B., Giles M., Thiago T., and April B. Thanks riding buddies!

One other cool project on Strava is the FlyBy option. Here’s the flyby for my latest event, the 2016 Paris to Ancaster: CLICK HERE

I’ve been fortunate to align my blog and my love for cycling with a number of companies and events. On my main page, you’ll see the logos for whom I’m an ambassador. These include:

For my first giveaway on my blog, HoneyMaxx has provided me with a gift pack. The prize includes 2 boxes of 10 individual HoneyMaxx nutrition mix, orange flavour. You may have seen them at some Ontario events lately: Paris to Ancaster, Tour of Pelham. Their nutrition drink contains real honey and they make delicious honey wafers that make a great pre-ride, during-ride or post-ride snack. I’ve been using their products for a while now and they’re easy on the stomach and provide the nutrition I need during my rides.

To enter the contest, you need to:

Follow my blog below by entering your email address (at the very bottom of this website),

Leave a comment with a recommendation for my “50-in-50” rides (I can’t guarantee that I’ll do your suggestion, but I’m looking for ideas!).

Follow HoneyMaxx on Twitter (@honeymaxx)

Note: This contest will close next Friday May 6, 2016 at 6 pm EST. I’ll do a random draw of all entries and notify the winner via email.

Thanks to HoneyMaxx for providing this prize. Please visit their website and try out their products! www.honeymaxx.com

Rail trail from Cambridge (or your home 🙂 to Port Dover (90km one way from Cambridge). Continue on to Turkey Point Provincial Park to camp overnight (have someone meet you there so they can bring up your mountain bike!) Ride MTB at Turkey Point the next day…camp another night so you can drink beer whilst enjoying good company around the campfire. Finish off by riding the rail trail home the next day….definitely memorable! 🙂

I’ve done the Cambridge to Port Dover ride (last summer) and I’m thinking about doing it again this year. It was a 180 km round trip. Adding a night of camping and MTBing at Turkey Point sounds like a great idea! I’m going to talk to my support team (i.e., family) to see if we can meet there to camp a night or two! Thanks Leigh!

Rail trail from Cambridge (or your home:) to Port Dover (90km one way from Cambridge). Continue on to Turkey Point Provincial Park to camp overnight (have someone meet you there so they can bring up your mountain bike!) Ride MTB at Turkey Point the next day…camp another night so you can drink beer whilst enjoying good company around the campfire. Finish off by riding the rail trail home the next day….definitely memorable!:)

Steve, you have got to hit Torrance Barrens and especially on a fatbike 🙂 I’ve cranked it a bunch of times… day, night, snow, hail, rain… no matter the conditions or time I just love riding there:) On the last Global Fatbike Day after Puslinch with the Fatboy Nation Crew I drove up there and did a SOLO night crank then slept in my Van in my gear and ripped it again the morning 😉 TB is a Dark Sky Preserve and so on any clear night all you see is billions of stars and on a good night you may even see the Aurora Borealis 🙂 If You have time, hit Buckwallow first, then if you want to hit some gnarly tech trails rip the Porcupine Ridge which are amazing and then head over to “Torrance’ for a great chill ride 🙂 If you feel like driving a little further… Kingdom Trails Vermont are also awesome 🙂 They offer everything from XC to gnarly tech to wicked DH trails… I highly recommend those too 🙂 FATBOY NATION stamped and Rafrider approved! 😉 JFCI!!!

Steve, you have got to hit Torrance Barrens and especially on a fatbike 😉 I’ve cranked it a bunch of times… day, night, snow, hail, rain… no matter the conditions or time I just love riding there 🙂 On the last Global Fatbike Day after Puslinch with the Fatboy Nation Crew I drove up there and did a SOLO night crank then slept in my Van in my gear and ripped it again the morning 😉 TB is a Dark Sky Preserve and so on any clear night all you see is billions of stars and on a good night you may even see the Aurora Borealis 🙂 If You have time, hit Buckwallow first, then if you want to hit some gnarly tech trails rip the Porcupine Ridge which are amazing and then head over to “Torrance’ for a great chill ride 🙂 If you feel like driving a little further… Kingdom Trails Vermont are also awesome 🙂 They offer everything from XC to gnarly tech to wicked DH trails… I highly recommend those too 🙂 FATBOY NATION stamped and Rafrider approved! 😉 JFCI!!!

Centre Wellington food bank ride. Lovely tour of Centre Wellington starting and finishing in Elora. Lunch in the Elora Brewing Company afterwards. Or ride the Elora Cataract trail to and from Elora and Erin lovely trail with very pretty villages at either end for a spot of lunch.

I’ve been looking into some of these gravel grinders in the USA. Sign up for the 2017 Rasputitsa just opened (April 2017) so I may sign up for that. There’s also gravel rides in NY, Mass, CT that I’ve thought about. Where’s the Hill BIlly? Thanks Doug!

Ride around Canandaigua Lake in upstate NY. Very scenic, excellent pavement conditions, somewhat hilly and about 80Km long. You will have the option to stop by in some of the beautiful wineries in the area. I rode it about 9 years ago and have great memories of that ride.

The GORBA Spring Epic is this coming Sunday, May 8th. We will be starting in Puslinch, doing about 15km in Twin Ponds, riding into Guelph through Little Tract, and then the Speed River Trails, across the rec trails in Guelph, and out to Arkell Springs. About 8km or so of new and old singletrack in there, and then up Watson road and finishing with the Guelph Lake trails. Should be about 60-70km. Everyone is allowed to do one GORBA ride before joining. Let me know if you would like more details. Jim